World’s Most Expensive Board Games

Whether played for family fun or intellectual stimulation, board games have a long history and some even predate the written word. It isn’t surprising, then, that some are willing to shell out thousands—or even millions—of dollars to purchase the most expensive board games in the world.

A beautiful and luxurious leather-bound edition of this popular trivia game is being retailed by Zontik Games. The board is meticulously leather-inlaid by hand and then embossed in gold or silver with felt-lined storage compartments for the game pieces. The dice cups and question card boxes are also inlaid with leather. Optionally, the game may include pieces inlaid with sterling silver. This expensive Trivial Pursuit board is not available in Canada or the US.

In this game, players attempt to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London. The board in this deluxe edition is laminated and set in a solid mahogany cabinet with a drawer for the sterling silver playing pieces, solid gold crown jewels and cards edged with gold leaf. The board also features an individually numbered brass plate.

Kiseido Imports Go Set – $12,950

This ancient Chinese game is often played with a traditional board with legs. A complete set also includes a pair of bowls to hold the players’ stones. Kiseido Imports offers a masame wood board with legs for $10,000, a set of yuki-grade shell and slate stones for $1,950 and pair of mulberry Go bowls for $1,000.

Created for the Charles Hollander Collection, this amazing board game features 61,082 black, white, and yellow diamonds totaling 2071.48 carats. The set also boasts over 6.77 kg of yellow gold and about 150 grams of silver. This masterpiece of art and jewelry required over 10,000 hours to create.

This single chess set is the most expensive and exquisite game set of any kind in the world. Constructed of gold and platinum, it contains diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls and sapphires. The king alone weighs 165.2 grams of 18k yellow gold and has a spiraling mid-section graced by 73 rubies and 146 diamonds. Boodles, a British custom jewelry company commissioned its production.